Monthly Archives: January 2011

The Judy A Saslow Gallery will be showing newly acquired works by
European Outsider Artists (François Burland, Gérard Cambon, Edmond
Engel, Michel Nedjar, and Christine Sefolosha) alongside famous
artists from the United States including Bill Traylor. For more
information please contact the Judy A Saslow Gallery or visit their website.

Fountain Gallery is one of the beneficiaries of this year’s Outsider Art Fair preview (Thursday, February 10 from 5:30pm – 9pm). Fountain Gallery is the premier venue in New York City representing artists with mental illness. Founded by Fountain House in 2000 as a not-for-profit exhibition space for artists living and working with mental illness, the Gallery sells original artworks and collaborates with a wide network of artists, curators and cultural institutions. Embracing artists who are emerging or established, trained or self-taught, Fountain Gallery cultivates artistic growth and makes a vital contribution to the New York arts community. http://www.fountaingallerynyc.com.

For more information about the benefit preview, please contact Fountain Gallery at 212-262-2756.

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Henry Boxer will be highlighting a group of works by Lorand at the forthcoming outsider fair.

‘I was born in Paris, not far from the Eiffel Tower, I don’t know who my father was which perhaps explains why I have always had a certain psychological fragility and instability…

I truly believe that a superior power has given me a real force which all true artists possess, a force which can influence matter making it pass from the invisible world to the visible world. A metaphysical force between the dead and the living. It is like drug and one cannot escape unscathed.

Lorand

I once asked a psychoanalyst who had bough one of my paintings if he thought that I was mad. He replied that I was not mad but that I had simply opened a door in my subconscious – perhaps the famous doors of perception?’

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Yukiko Koide of Japan is pleased to share with us this wonderful piece of 1970’s Outsider Art.

Junko Yamamoto (1972, Japan )

The work of Junko Yamamoto fascinates us with its brilliantly simplified form, unrestricted color choice, audacious two-dimensional design, and process requiring subtle sense of touch. These characteristics may have something to do with her autism. Some autistic persons excel in visual memory; they can record and replay certain images as if they have a digital camera inside their brain. It is also said that autistic people have extremely sensitive sense of touch. Because her mother was involved in handicraft work at home, Junko grew up observing her mother’s sewing, their home full of material. One day, she picked up some pieces of felt in her favorite colors and surprised her family by suddenly starting appliqués. Her themes include food, kitchen gadgets, hardware etc. She remembers these artifacts of everyday life or from art books or magazines, and cuts them from felt fabrics without any hesitation. Instead of verbal communications that are not her strength, Junko presents a “felt” world of felts.

Born on the island of Kalymnos in Greece in 1912, Drossos Skyllas was trained as an accountant when his father opposed his early interest in art. He worked for a time in his father’s tobacco business before emigrating to the United States shortly after World War II. Settling in Chicago, and encouraged and supported by his wife Iola, he devoted himself solely to his early dream of creative fulfillment. He haunted the Art Institute, advertised himself as a portrait painter, but sold no paintings in his lifetime for his prices equalled those of well-known artists. Skyllas felt his own work deserved as much. Upon his death in 1973, his creative output consisted of thirty-five paintings – portraits and nudes in studied settings, landscapes, still-lifes and religious figures – all characterized by a meticulous attention to detail.

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A Long Journey to New York City to Debut at The Outsider Art Fair in 2011

Andrei Palmer has earned his Outsider status, although, until very recently, no one in his family had heard of the word. His early childhood was spent in a series of Romanian orphanages where lasting memories of abuse and neglect led to developmental delays and social challenges. Since his 1993 American adoption at the age of six, Andrei has been on a slow recovery from post-institutionalization trauma, a disorder on the autistic spectrum.

“He just sees things differently than others,” says his mother, a Christian author who runs the Refugee Sewing Society, teaching needlework skills to immigrants from war-torn countries, “He’s always been interested in how things fit together.” Palmer, now 23, watches traffic when driven to work at a warehouse, telling us “But sometimes I like to stay quiet and look out the window and notice things about cars that others might not”.

From his own observations, not car magazines or similar, he draws detailed sketches on cardboard sheets recycled from orange juice pallets at his workplace. This becomes the frame to which he attaches “parts” crafted from wooden rods, aluminum-coated paper, chicken wire, blister-packaging plastic, fabric, discarded toy car rubber wheels and any found items considered necessary. Typically 2 to 3 feet long, some have working lights with batteries hidden in the trunks or under the hoods. Palmer’s production process – equal parts skill, concentration and patience with a constant background hum of 80’s rock – can take from several days to a few weeks. Then follows a demanding inspection by quality control to ensure high standards are met.

Courtesy Marion Harris

Until recently, the cars were hardly known outside Andrei’s home-town near Atlanta. Like many car devotees, Andrei is not comfortable in the role of car salesman. They will be available exclusively through the Park Avenue dealership of Marion Harris and at Outsider Art Fair.